College Apparel Contractor Faces Labor Suit

Claiming Los Angeles garment workers who produced high-end jackets for USC, UCLA and several other universities were cheated out of overtime pay, two legal centers filed suit in U.S. District Court on Tuesday, asking for back wages and punitive damages.

The lawsuit was announced at a news conference on the USC campus as part of a coordinated “labor solidarity day” in which students at 20 universities across the country demonstrated for labor rights.

“This is exactly the type of abuse our codes of conduct are meant to prevent,” said Padmini Narumanchi of the USC Student Coalition Against Labor Exploitation. “We are calling upon USC to be a leader in this community, as well as globally, by taking a strong stance against labor violations such as these.”

Students from Harvard to Stanford also called for a “living wage” for all university workers and tougher codes of conduct for contractors who produce university apparel. The protests, culminating a year of heightened student activism around labor issues, were coordinated by the newly formed National Student Labor Alliance and United Students Against Sweatshops.

In the lawsuit filed Tuesday, eight Latino immigrants alleged they were routinely forced to work overtime off the clock, periodically had to take work home in violation of state laws and were subjected to verbal abuse. One worker who requested anonymity said he was paid by piecework and that the rate was steadily dropping.

“Our weekly paychecks were always missing some of the money we were owed,” he said.

A manager at the company disputed the charges. “We have guys here making $500 to $700 a week,” said Jacob Nisim of J.H. Design Group on Pico Boulevard. “We’re the highest-paying [garment manufacturer] in L.A. People are lining up to get a job here.” Nisim said a competitor was behind the charges.

The suit was filed by Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles and Asian Pacific American Legal Center, which successfully represented Thai garment workers discovered in 1995 in El Monte working as virtual slaves.